The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Jacobi, Herman Georg Jakob

JACOBI, Herman Georg Jakob, German Sanskrit scholar: b. Cologne, 11 Feb. 1850. He was educated at Cologne Gymnasium, and later took up a course of studies in Sanskrit and allied languages at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. After spending a year (1872-73) in the India office in London on the old Sanskrit manuscripts, he went to India, making a tour of Rajputana. In 1875 he became a docent in Sanskrit at Bonn; from 1876-85 was professor extraordinarius of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Münster, Westphalia; in 1885 was made professor ordinarius of Sanskrit at Kiel; and in 1889 was appointed professor of Sanskrit at Bonn. He made a special study of Jainisny and Prâkrit grammar, writing exhaustively on those subjects as well as on the Sanskrit poetical languages. Among the most important of his works are ‘The Indian Antiquary’ and the ‘Epigraphia Indica,’ published in 1892, in which he gives two sets of tables showing the Hindu dates in inscriptions, a work of much value. His other works include ‘De Astrologiæ Indicæ, Horâ appellatæ originibus’ (1872); ‘The Kalpasûtra of Bhadrabâhu’ (1879); ‘The Âyaramgo Sutta of the Çvetâmbra Jains’ (1882); ‘Gaina Sûtras’ (1884); ‘Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Mâhârâshtri. Zur Einführung in das Studium des Prâhrit’ (1886): ‘The Porisishtaparvan by Hemachandra’ (1891); ‘Sthavirâvali Charita’ (1891); ‘Das Ramayana Geschichte und Inhalt, nebst Concordanz der gedruckten Recensionen’ (1893); ‘Kompositum und Nebensatz, Studien über die indogermanische Sprachentwicklung’ (1897); ‘Bhasa's Svapnavasavadatta’ (1913); etc.